CINCINNATI—As part of an effort to improve local journalism and retrain print journalists for work on video-driven platforms, The E.W. Scripps Company has announced that six veteran print journalists across its local and national media newsrooms will join the Google-backed Journalism Journey Initiative in its inaugural class.
The Journalism Journey Initiatives aims to retain accomplished journalists in the industry by redeploying their reporting skills for video-driven reporting platforms.
Google has made a financial commitment to Scripps to underwrite the newly created program.
These journalists will combine their existing reporting skills with new video-driven storytelling techniques provided by the Journalism Journey Initiative while working in Scripps’ local and national newsrooms across the country. The two-year JJI program will provide extensive training and support, including mentoring, skill development and individual talent coaching.
“These six journalists have decades of experience in the fundamentals of journalism – from identifying stories and responsibly sourcing them to the rigorous fact checking and editing process this profession demands,” said Jim Iovino, program director for the Scripps Journalism Journey Initiative. “They will work alongside peers within Scripps’ newsrooms during their two years in our JJI cohort and beyond in order to bring their essential reporting skills to the growing and diverse audiences using video-based platforms as their primary source of news and information.”
The inaugural class of Journalism Journey Initiative journalists are:
- Angelika Albaladejo is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work has been published by outlets including USA Today, the Guardian, Univision, CNN, the Miami Herald and Mother Jones. She previously reported on immigration and criminal justice for the nonprofit newsroom Capital & Main and has also served as an independent foreign correspondent in Latin America. Albaladejo has been a fellow with the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. Albaladejo will work at KMGH, Scripps’ ABC affiliate in Denver.
- Mary Chao most recently covered Asian-American issues and real estate for The Bergen (New Jersey) Record (NorthJersey.com). An award-winning print and multimedia journalist of 25 years, Chao is a longtime business reporter who has served as an opinion columnist, editorial board member, enterprise and investigative reporter, community connector and diversity leader. She is a first-generation college graduate – of New York University – and English language learner immigrant from Taipei, Taiwan. Chao will work at Scripps News out of New York and New Jersey.
- Jessica De Leon has worked for the Bradenton Herald for nearly a decade covering law enforcement, crime, court cases and breaking news – from hurricanes and protests to the COVID-19 pandemic. De Leon’s work has won numerous awards from the Florida Press Club, Florida Society of Journalists and the Florida Society of News Editors. De Leon also helped lead the effort to unionize the Bradenton Herald newsroom and successfully negotiated a collective bargaining agreement for the Bradenton Herald NewsGuild. Born in Houston, Texas, to Cuban parents and raised in South Florida, she is a proud first-generation Cuban-American. De Leon will be based at WFTS, Scripps’ ABC affiliate in Tampa.
- Bryan Horwath is a newspaper reporter and editor with 15 years of experience at media outlets across the U.S. He was most recently a business editor at the Las Vegas Sun. Horwath is active in the Society of Professional Journalists and serves as a board member for its Las Vegas chapter. Horwath will work at KTNV, Scripps’ ABC affiliate in Las Vegas.
- Daniel Lathrop is an experienced investigative reporter whose writing and data journalism has been published in the New York Times, USA Today and news outlets across the country. He has reported for The Dallas Morning News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Center for Public Integrity. Prior to joining Scripps, he was an investigative projects reporter at the Des Moines Register. He is an author of two books and a former professor of media informatics. Lathrop will work at Scripps News out of Iowa.
- Anne Ryman has reported for Arizona newspapers for 30 years with a track record of prompting significant policy changes through her investigations. She has been part of several award-winning reporting teams at The Arizona Republic, including its 2018 Pulitzer Prize for “The Wall: Unknown stories, Unintended consequences” about the planned 2,000-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and its 2018 George Polk Award for revealing how Arizona allows charter-school operators to make huge profits off public education dollars. She will be based at KNXV, Scripps’ ABC affiliate in Phoenix.
The Journalism Journey Initiative will be recruiting a second cohort later this year. Interested journalists can request more information here.
